Oops!

Did I really not put anything on here for three months? Sorry poor, neglected blog. So, the last post seems to be from when we had record-breaking amounts of snow. I am trying to remember what that is like. Right now it is nice and sunny and warm. Our flowers are blooming and the vegetable garden is planted (cross your fingers that we actually get some vegetables from it...).

The kids are awesome and we have been having fun. Isaac is hilarious and discovering the world of imaginary play. It is extremely entertaining.

William is about the cutest and happiest kid ever. He is walking now and working hard to get his chubby body to climb things. He has found new motivation to do this since he is infatuated with looking out the window (the only thing better is actually being outside). So, to look out it, he has to climb up on to the couch. He is working really hard at it, but the big belly and thunder thighs are not helping his cause much.

He continues to love to play with cousin Benny. He goes crazy with excitement when he sees Benny coming up our backyard in the stroller. Benny came over for the inaugural use of our swimming pool this year. Isaac burned out fast and was in the sandbox, but William outlasted everyone and still cried when I took him out. He LOVES water.

Isaac has discovered the world of bandaids. He seems to be getting a lot of wounds lately that require bandaids since we got some race car and sponge bob bandaids (he does not even know who sponge bob is, but sure loves the bandaids). This weekend he got generous and decided to put bandaids on all of us. We went through a whole box this weekend. William was not sure what to do with the bandaid on his arm, but got used to it eventually.

We have been slowly working on potty training with Isaac (emphasis on slow!). I think that he has realized there is not much in this for him. Diapers aren't that bad. We gave him a race car for his first big poop (can you say that on a blog? Well, I just did). He was pretty stoked, but not stoked enough to have a repeat performance or realize that this is not a bad way to operate. I figure that most kids realize that diapers are not so cool at some point. Hopefully he will catch on to that one...



We had a nice Easter (at least i think that we did. I really don't remember it). According to this picture Isaac and Aleks were at least smiling for part of it. These are some Easter eggs that a friend gave us that tell the story of the last week of Jesus' life. Isaac loves them and it was a great way to tell him why we celebrate Easter. Wearing his batman pajamas and Elmo slippers also helped augment the experience.

In April we had a nice trip to Ithaca. I don't remember much of that, except it left me excited for our next trip there. Isaac thought he had died and gone to heaven and did not want to come home. Here is he playing race cars with Grandpa.

Recently we took a family outing to the Blue Hills (a big reserve just south of Boston) and went for a hike. It was a lot of fun. The kids loved it and I did to.



At the top of the hill (at the giant's house, according to Isaac) someone took our picture, so we have a rare shot with all of in it.



I think that this might be from Mother's day, but I can't remember (lots of sleep debt and bad short term memory going on here). Isaac was pretty stoked about getting a tie (I picked this up at a thrift shop at his request). I think that this shot was taken right before he held Aleks' hand and said he wanted to marry him. He has been wanting to marry me, too. I guess that this is not uncommon among these kiddos.



Springtime means yard work. Benny and Sharon came to visit when we were working on a little project outside. I read an article a few years back in the NY Times saying that kids don't eat enough dirt these days and it is causing them health problems. I don't remember many details, but was sure to retain the lesson that my kids need to eat dirt to be healthy. I think that William, in particular, is on the path to a very healthy life.



This is from this week. I love watching these two guys play around.



This week our shop vac has gotten a lot of use. It started on Monday when William dumped a bag of cereal in the car (don't ask how he got it). Isaac had already dumped crackers all over that he had been mashing up. I thought that could probably slide, but the bag of cereal pushed me over the edge and I vacuumed the car. Wednesday, Isaac got a few boxes of pasta out of the cupboard and when I wasn't watching decided to decorate the toy room a bit. William thought it was pretty cool. I think I would have been more amused if I did not have to clean it up. It turns out that it can take a while to vacuum up pasta, especially when the spaghetti has been walked on and broken into little bits that are ground into the carpet. I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of the wave of destruction and messes that are heading our way.

Winter Update

This is long overdue. We have been having a nice winter, in spite of the large amounts of snow we have been getting. Unfortunately we did not take any pictures of the snow at its peak, but here are some before the last few storms. Our front yard ended up being completely full of snow. Isaac has really enjoyed playing in it. He and Aleks made a fort in the backyard and he likes to crawl in the snow. Now that we have had rain followed by freezing and the snow is like ice we are not playing in it so much.

Thankfully our roof has been in great shape. The roof over an addition to the house needed a little shoveling off. Aleks crawled out there from the boys' room and we had fun watching.



When the bike path behind our house was really snow-packed, we would take nice walks with the kids in the sled. They liked that.

Isaac has been his usual active self. Yesterday he turned three, so there will be more photos on the festivities for that when I get around to blogging again.

He and Aleks continue to enjoy a nice relationship. I think that this will continue to be the trend as he gets in to playing with specific toys and imaginary play. Aleks is so much better at that than I am.

William is ridiculously cute and a lot of fun. He is saying DaDadadadada and Mamamamamamama. I think that he even knows what they mean.

He is a really happy kid and pretty easy-going.

He really likes getting outside, even when it is cold.

He has a really chubby belly and a nice set of love handles. His pants are all a bit tight, even though he is wearing a mix of 18month and 24 month pants. The 24 month pants are generally big enough around, but too long. True fat man pants!

William is totally in love with the bath tub. It is unfortunate since he is a bit top heavy, so we have to keep a close eye on him when he is anywhere near it.

Not sure if it is possible to see that his feet are not touching the ground here. I think that we need to bath him more, since he clearly is not getting his fix of it.

This is the favorite drawer in the kitchen. I like it when they play nice together.

I am determined to teach my boys how to cook. So far Isaac is interested.

This week Aleks pulled out his wig from his wild single years.

Isaac wanted one so he pulled out a hat that he got when he was a missionary for our church in Russia. Isaac liked that a lot.

You know that you are the parent of a toddler when...

1. You respond to the fictitious names of Sally, Chick Hicks, Diesel, Lightening McQueen, etc.
2. You know Thomas and all of his friends.
3. When you finally get a night out with your spouse, you find that you talk about your kids' bowel movements.
4. Elmo's Potty Time is up next on your Netflix queue.
5. You catch yourself over-annunciating and using simple words when talking to your spouse.
6. pbskids.org is bookmarked.
7. A large portion of the food you consume is partially eaten and/or has been sitting on a small plate for a while.
8. You find yourself humming or whistling toddler tunes at work.
9. You get really excited when you see someone dressed up as a Sesame Street or Disney character because you know that your kid will give a great reaction.

Feel free to add your own.

Our elven decorator

Isaac has been inspired by the decorating we did for Christmas and has recently developed a flare for putting out decorations. The other day I was giving William lunch and heard him in toy room talking about decorating. This was what it looked like afterward.

Apparently decorating means emptying out the contents of all his toy bins. William likes his style.

Last night he tried on some new pajamas and he was a big fan of them. Aleks helped him complete the outfit so he looked like an elf.

He insisted on wearing the pajamas all day today and is sleeping in them right now. I must admit it was kind of nice to not have to chase him around to change his clothes today.

Christmas!

We had an awesome Christmas. We did not travel (hurrah! finally!) and family came to visit us. It was ridiculously fun. Christmas Eve we had a lot of family over (14 adults and 4 kids age 2 and under). We attempted the nativity with the kids. Isaac was a great cow and mooed a lot. Henry was a really cute shepherd. William was in bed and it lasted about 30 seconds (if even). Maybe next year the kids will have a slightly longer attention span.

Christmas morning was nice and leisurely. We ate a good breakfast. Isaac opened his stocking present in that time and was thrilled. I think that we could have stopped there (trains and cars!).

We had one meltdown when Isaac found out that he could not open all of the presents under the tree. He got over it pretty quick.

One of my favorite gifts for the kids was an indoor bounce house. I got this for them (and me) last summer on a July clearance. Isaac LOVES it.

Grandma Kay got the kids matching outfits. It is the first time they have been dressed in the same clothes. (I will add that this photo was incredibly hard to take. We have lots of one or both of them crying or crawling or running away).

Puzzle time!

Pre-christmas December

Catch up time...

We had a great December. Isaac had several visits with Santa, which seemed to serve him well on Christmas morning. It seems that Santa understood when he whispered "Diesel" and "all the engines".

We also got to have cousin Benny come over for a while so his parents could go out. We had a lot of fun.

William continues to be super cute and super chubby. He just started to crawl, so I fear that some of the chubbiness might start to melt away. He is nine months old and wearing 18month clothes. Some of those are a little tight, though.

He seems to always need something in his mouth. Poor playmobil girl did not know what hit her (or bit her).

He still has the helmet, but seems to be making great progress. We are optimistic that the helmet should be staying on the shelf soon.